U.S. patent number 4,388,857 [Application Number 06/247,335] was granted by the patent office on 1983-06-21 for apparatus for the continuous cooking of wort.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Kraftanlagen A.G.. Invention is credited to Johannes Korek.
United States Patent |
4,388,857 |
Korek |
June 21, 1983 |
Apparatus for the continuous cooking of wort
Abstract
Apparatus for the continuous boiling of wort serving for beer
production in a reactor at a temperature increased and a pressure
increased during the time of stay in the reactor, which reactor is
preceded by a wort preheater heated by wort vapor, and by an
outside boiler heated by outside steam, and is followed by at least
one expansion stage. The reactor and the at least single expansion
stage are followed by at least two evaporation stages, to which
wort vapor condensers are connected, to which the wort vapors from
their associated evaporation stages are fed, and in which water is
heated by the use of the condensate heat, while a wort cooler is
connected to the output of the vacuum evaporator.
Inventors: |
Korek; Johannes (Wieslock,
DE) |
Assignee: |
Kraftanlagen A.G. (Heidelberg,
DE)
|
Family
ID: |
6098955 |
Appl.
No.: |
06/247,335 |
Filed: |
March 25, 1981 |
Foreign Application Priority Data
Current U.S.
Class: |
99/276; 426/29;
426/492; 426/493; 99/278 |
Current CPC
Class: |
C12C
7/22 (20130101); C12C 13/025 (20130101); C12C
7/26 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
C12C
13/02 (20060101); C12C 13/00 (20060101); A23L
001/207 () |
Field of
Search: |
;99/276,277,277.1,277.2,278 ;426/29,16,490,492,493,11,30
;435/93 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
Other References
Julin, V. S., Berger, H., Brauwelt, vol. 119 (1979), No. 15, pp.
492-494..
|
Primary Examiner: Hornsby; Harvey C.
Assistant Examiner: Peterson; Christine A.
Claims
I claim:
1. An apparatus for continuous boiling of wort in beer production,
comprising:
a reactor vessel under elevated pressure and at elevated
temperature, and having a wort inlet conduit and a wort outlet
conduit, a wort preheater in said inlet conduit, a boiler heated by
outside heat and placed in said inlet conduit between said wort
preheater and said reactor vessel, at least one evaporator in said
outlet conduit, a vacuum evaporator with at least two evaporators
in said outlet conduit following said at least one evaporator, at
least two wort vapor condensers respectively connected to said at
least two evaporators for receiving wort vapors therefrom, means
for passing brew water, to be used in said beer production, through
said at least two condensers and to be heated by the wort vapor
condensating in said wort vapor condensers, and a wort cooler in
said outlet conduit following said at least two evaporators, for
cooling the boiled wort concentrated in said at least two
evaporators.
2. An apparatus according to claim 1, in which said wort vapor
condensers are arranged in series, and wherein said brew water is
fed through said condensers in series in counterflow to the wort
vapor condensating in said wort vapor condensers.
3. An apparatus according to claim 2, including a conduit for
passing said brew water through said wort cooler as a coolant to be
preheated by the wort flowing through said cooler, and said last
mentioned conduit passing through said condensers.
4. An apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, comprising a
wort afterheater placed in said wort inlet conduit between said
wort preheater and said boiler, and conduit means connecting said
at least one evaporator with said wort afterheater for passing
vapors from said at least one evaporator to said wort afterheater
which functions as a condenser.
5. An apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said wort afterheater
and said wort condensers have condensate chambers, and means for
interconnecting said condensating chambers.
6. An apparatus according to claim 1, comprising conduit means
interconnecting said reactor vessel and said wort preheater for
conducting vapor from said reactor vessel through said wort
preheater to thereby preheat wort in said preheater.
7. An apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said wort preheater
has a condensate chamber, and conduit means interconnecting the
condensate chambers of said wort preheater and said wort
afterheater.
Description
BACKGROUND
The invention relates to an apparatus for the continuous cooking of
wort used for the production of beer, consisting of a preheater
heating the wort with the vapor from the cooking operation, a steam
heater supplied with steam from an outside boiler, a reactor in
which the heated wort is maintained for a period of time at
constant elevated temperature and pressure, and at least one
expansion evaporator.
It is already known to heat the hopped wort withdrawn by a pump
from the mashing kettle at about 75.degree. C. to a temperature of
about 95.degree. C. in a first heat exchanger, to about 115.degree.
C. in a second heat exchanger, and lastly in a third to about
140.degree. C. Then the wort is passed through a reactor in the
form of a cylindrical tank where it is kept at this last
temperature for a certain length of time under a constant pressure
of approximately 6 bar. The elevated pressure prevents the wort
from boiling up too soon. Then follows a two-stage lowering of the
pressure to about 1 bar absolute. The vapor that is released by
this abrupt reduction of pressure is used for a regenerative
heating of the wort from about 95.degree. to 115.degree. C. in a
second heat exchanger. The wort is discharged from this evaporation
tank at a temperature of about 120.degree. C. and, in a second
evaporation tank connected to the outlet of the first evaporation
tank, it is expanded from 1 bar of excess pressure to standard
pressure corresponding to a wort temperature of approximately
100.degree. C.
The heat of the wort vapors from the second expansion stage is used
to preheat the wort from 75.degree. C. to 95.degree. C. in a first
heat exchanger. The third wort heating stage, also in the form of a
heat exchanger, is designed for a final wort temperature of about
140.degree. C., and is supplied with direct steam of approximately
7 bar corresponding to 160.degree. C. (Brauwelt, Vol. 119,1979 No.
15, pp. 492-494). This high temperature cooking, continuous wort
clarification and wort cooling permits the achievement of an
immediate hot separation of sediment and rapid cooling to the
pitching temperature.
The coefficient of evaporation is selected between 5 and 6%, and
the concentration of the last run of wort and of part of the second
wort is omitted. The temperature produced during the reaction
period, which is now increased to 140.degree. C., considerably
higher than the 100.degree. C. boiling temperatures formerly used
in brewing kettles, for a shorter period of time, is necessary in
order to achieve an evaporation of at least 7%.
The invention is aimed at considerably reducing the energy
requirement and hops consumption in a continuous wort cooking
operation of the above-described kind, and at achieving a
substantial outgassing of the wort combined with an improvement of
quality.
This object is achieved in accordance with the invention in that
the reactor and at least one expansion stage is followed by a
vacuum evaporator having at least two evaporation stages from which
the wort vapors are fed to wort vapor condensers in which water is
heated by these vapors for any desired useful purpose, and in that
the output of the vacuum evaporator is connected to a wort
cooler.
As in the formerly known method, the reaction and the relieving of
the pressure on the wort are separate operations, the expansion
being performed in a series of evaporators after the reaction has
been completed, at which time the wort is still hot and under
constant elevated pressure. The method of the invention differs
from this principally in that a vacuum evaporator of two or more
stages of evaporation follows the reactor and the evaporator. This
vacuum evaporator cools the wort in steps down to about 50.degree.
C., and at the same time outgasses it, and the vapors from the
vacuum evaporators are delivered from each vacuum evaporator to one
of a series of vapor condensers connected to one another in tandem,
for the purpose of heating brew water flowing through them
countercurrently to the wort, or for any other such heating
purpose.
Furthermore, a wort cooler follows the last evaporator stage of
lowest pressure, and to which cooler preferably brewing water is
fed as a cooling medium so that the same simultaneously serves as a
preheater for the brewing water. In this manner, evaporation and
thereby a cooling of the wort to approximately the temperature of
the surroundings is achieved, and the created vapor heat is fully
used, preferably for heating the brewing water. The cooling
achieved by vacuum evaporation leads to a higher durability and
quality of the produced wort. Simultaneously, odors in the
environment are reduced, due to the evaporation in the individual
stages of the vacuum evaporator.
By maintaining the temperature level that has proved successful for
the boiling in brewing vats with external boilers surprisingly the
possibility arises for simply fixing the evaporation at a rate of
from 8 to 14% and for reliably eliminating undesirable hop oil
components and taste carriers, without letting smell-intensive
materials into the environment.
According to a further development of the main inventive idea,
condensate conduits are used for connecting the condensate chambers
of the wort heater and the last stage of highest end temperature
for exploiting low temperature heat, and further condensate
conduits for the connection of the condensate chambers of the
preheater preferably for brew water among themselves, in a series
arrangement of such condensate chambers countercurrent to the
preheating of the brew water. In this manner, also the pressure of
the brew condensate is lowered approximately to the pressure of the
environment in steps and the condensate heat is, in addition, used
for the exploitation of the low temperature.
Preferably, an evaporation of the wort in the reactor may take
place whereby the temperature of the same is slightly lowered. The
vapors are fed to the wort preheater and thereby the heat energy
used for the boiling process is completely recovered. Preferably,
the vapor condensate of the reactor is fed to the condensate
chamber of the wort heater to likewise redirect the condensate heat
of the same into the process.
To explain the idea of the invention, an embodiment of the
apparatus of the invention for the continuous cooking of wort is
represented diagrammatically in the drawing and will be explained
herewith.
The wort is fed at about 75.degree. C. by the pump 1 into the
apparatus and passes successively through pipeline 3 into wort
preheater 5, through pipeline 7 to the second wort heater 9, and
then via pipeline 11 to the heat exchanger 13 heated with steam
from an outside boiler, and lastly through line 15, at a final
temperature of approximately 110.degree.-125.degree. C. into the
reactor 17. The reactor in this case takes the place of the
formerly used brewing kettle. After a period of time in the
reactor, the wort passes through line 19 with throttling into
evaporator 21 and then via line 23 into the first stage 25 of a
vacuum evaporator, via line 27 into the second stage 29 thereof,
and finally via line 31 into its third and last stage 33, with
throttling and pressure reduction in each to let the pressure off
the wort and at the same time cool it down to approximately ambient
temperature. The wort leaving the final evaporator stage passes
through line 35 into a cooler 37 and via line 39 to the pump 41.
The pump 41 delivers the wort from the apparatus of the invention
at about 35.degree. C. Brew water is provided as the coolant for
the wort; this water entering through the wort cooler 37, is also
used for the condensation of the wort vapors in the individual
stages of the vacuum evaporator, and for this purpose it is fed
countercurrently to the wort from the vapor condenser of lowest
pressure to that of highest pressure. Thus, the brew water is fed
from the wort cooler 37 through the pipeline 50 to the vapor
condenser 52, through pipeline 54 through the vapor condenser 56,
and lastly through pipeline 58 through the vapor condenser 60, so
as to be used as brew water in the mashing operation. The
individual stages of the vacuum evaporator are in this case
connected to the corresponding vapor condensers through the vapor
lines 51, 53 and 55. The vapor condenser 9 is connected to the
evaporator 21 by the vapor line 57 and serves simultaneously as the
second wort heater.
In the apparatus shown, the energy of the expanding vapor from the
reactor and from the apparatus that follow is returned into the
process in the following manner. The hot vapor released by the
expansion of the wort passes from the evaporator 21 to the vapor
condenser 9, the condensate passes over line 79 through the vapor
condenser 60 of the first stage of the vacuum evaporator, over line
81 through the vapor condenser 56 of its second stage, and then
finally over line 83 through the vapor condenser 52 of its third
and final stage. The condensate pump 87 connected by line 85 to the
vapor condenser of lowest pressure of the vacuum evaporator serves
for the pumping of the condensate. The removal of the gases from
the vapor chambers of all the vapor condensers is represented as an
air pump 91 connected by line 89 to the vapor condenser 52 of the
third and final stage of lowest pressure 33 of the vacuum
evaporator.
For a preliminary evaporation in reactor 17 with a simultaneous
slight temperature reduction, vapors from the reactor are removed
from the reactor through line 71, shutoff valve 73 and connecting
line 75 and fed to the wort preheater 5. The thermal energy used
for the cooling is in this manner completely recovered.
The vapor condensate from the wort preheater 5 passes through line
77 into the condensate chamber of the second wort heater 9 in order
likewise to make use of the heat of its condensate in the
process.
* * * * *